Lets Go Home, Kaneki
by MoffAnimeTeeny
Summary: [Alternate death scene] The death of Hideyoshi Nagachika, rewritten as if it happened in Attack on Titan- Cadet Kaneki Ken finds his friend severely injured and on the brink of death and puts his life on the line to protect him. Tokyo Ghoul x Attack on Titan. One shot.


Kaneki was running through the streets of Trost like a madman. There wasn't a soul in sight. His heart was pounding so hard he thought he would puke.

Kaneki was just a cadet, a member of the 104th trainee squad, a fresh graduate. This was his first mission to reclaim the wall, and he was scared to death. His 3DM gear had malfunctioned internally. He was not too shabby in the technical department, but he didn't have time to diagnose the problem- he had to stay alive. He was too young and had too much to live for.

Staying on the ground was suicide. Titans were everywhere. One wrong turn could send him to the grave. _Where is everybody? Did they retreat? Why don't I see the smoke signals? Where am I?_ he thought frantically. He turned left. There was a 15 meter class titan sitting in the street tearing apart two commoners. It turned its head and stared at Kaneki with that disgusting smiling face. "Dammit!" he exclaimed and took off running in the opposite direction. The titan stood up to pursue him. _Dammit, dammit, dammit, now I'm really screwed_ , he thought. He took another turn.

A building had collapsed on that street. Its contents lay in a pile blocking off the road. Kaneki didn't want to turn around and just take another route. There's no going back _. I just need to climb over it,_ he thought. He charged at the obstacle, planning to clear it with two swift moves, but something stopped him.

There was an arm under the rubble. It was twitching. Kaneki paused. He heard a weird moaning. _This person is alive_. He started tearing through the mess of bricks, broken wood, and stones. He looked behind him to make sure the titan wasn't still following him. He hoped it got lost looking for him. "Just give me a second," he said, throwing everything behind him. "I'll get you out of-" He stopped short. He almost fainted when he saw the face of the trapped soldier. His eyes immediately filled with tears. His hands shook. "Oh my god… Hide…"

Lying under this disaster was Kaneki's best friend, Hide. He was in a pool of blood. His right arm and his eyebrow twitched. His right leg was gone, hip and all. His left arm was bitten off at the elbow.

Kaneki dropped to his knees. He gave Hide a nudge. "Hide…" he choked out. Nothing happened. He shook him a little. "Hide…" he said louder. Tears were streaming down his face, stinging his cheeks. He lightly slapped his cheek. He just wanted him to wake up. "Hideyoshi! Wake up!"

Hide's eyes slowly cracked open. He looked at Kaneki without moving a muscle. He managed a weak smile. "K'kaneki… what're you doing…on the ground…" Hide coughed violently and spat out blood.

Kaneki held back his tears a bit. "Hide, we… we gotta go now…" He lifted up a wooden beam that crushed his left leg. He could hear the titan's footsteps growing closer and closer. "Kaneki, just go." Hide whispered. "No! I can't leave you to die!"

The 15 meter class had caught sight of the two helpless humans on the ground. "Go," Hide said again. Kaneki looked at the titan. The stupid, brainless titan. He balled up his fists. He was unsure of what to do. _I can't abandon him. Not like this. I could never live with myself_. He clenched his teeth, and made his decision.

He ripped his belt off. His broken gear clattered to the ground. He scooped up his friend and started making his way over the fallen building's remains. _If Hide dies, it won't be in the mouths of those disgusting animals!_

Holding his nearly dead friend, suffering miserably and dripping in blood as he ran brought Kaneki to his wit's end. He was sobbing uncontrollably. He could barely see a foot in front of him through his tears. But he kept running. He didn't even realize he was just running further and further away from the rest of his comrades. He'd be left behind. They'd scale the wall back to safety without him. He had to face it. Hide was going to die from loss of blood soon. But Kaneki didn't care. He wasn't going to let the titans devour his body, dead or alive.

All this was a bit pointless. Even if someone found them, they couldn't save Hide. No surgery or false limbs would be saving him. He'd be shot in the head and cremated with the rest of the casualties.

-line break-

Kaneki kicked open the first door he saw. He narrowly outran two 7 meter class titans that were chasing him. He ran up the stairs that were before him and into a newly abandoned flat. He put Hide on the floor and barricaded the door with a dining table- like it would do them any good.

He stood a moment, catching his breath.

He wiped his tears, only to get blood all over his face. Hide was still bleeding. Clutching him for so long had left kaneki soaked in blood.

The blood of his best friend.

Hideyoshi Nagachika.

Once again Kaneki was in tears.

Hide hung to life by a thread. Kaneki inhaled sharply. He sat down next to Hide on the floor. "H-hey, Kaneki…" he choked out. "Yeah?" "Thank you… for everything…" Kaneki smiled through his tears and anguish. "Y-yeah… just stop talking and… relax…"

Hide dropped his head against kaneki's shoulder. "Hey! Hey! Don't sleep!" Kaneki freaked out. Oh my god… he's going… "But I'm tired… kaneki." "N-no! You can't go! Not now! Don't leave me here!"

I have no one else in this world, Kaneki thought. After his dad walked out on him and his mom died from cancer, Hide was the only person who truly stuck by his side.

He sniffled.

He had to accept it. There was no way he could live. He lost too much blood.

"Hey…" Hide whispered hoarsely, "you I…I'll always love you in that… brotherly way…right?" Hide laughed weakly. The laugh turned into a cough, and the cough came with blood. Hide put his right hand on Kaneki's knee.

Kaneki stared at Hide's twitching hand resting on his knee. No… he protested silently. He ran his hand through his friend's soft sandy hair. The tips of his hair were coated in blood. _How long was he laying there under that building?_

Then suddenly, Hide's body went limp against Kaneki's shoulder. Kaneki exhaled, for he was out of tears to shed. He was gone.

"Bye… Hideyoshi."

-line break-

Kaneki wrapped Hide in a sheet he found in the flat. He sat in a chair, unsure of what to do. It was too late to do anything. If he wanted to be rescued, he'd have to wait for the cadets on "Clean Up Duty" to show up. That could be days.

He didn't even know if the troops had killed the titans remaining in the wall. Better yet, did the mission even succeed? How many people died? Who died?

Kaneki almost didn't even care.

But he wondered…

 _If my gear hadn't busted, I wouldn't have started running. I wouldn't have run this way…I wouldn't have found Hide. What if I never found him? His death would've been a mystery to me. A titan would've found his body and ate him. I might've found his body in one of the upchuck crystals from a titan. At least… I said goodbye. But now, I don't know if I'll die too. They'll never find me here. Who would look? This was the first section of the town to be evacuated. There aren't going to be many bodies here… maybe a few. This will be the last place they'll search, if they even bother to search it. I'll end up listed as missing or assumed dead…_

Kaneki was too depressed and worn out to think about all the other soldiers and commoners who died, or the duty he abandoned.

He didn't want to do anything. Not even sleep.

 _What am I doing? My best friend is dead, wrapped in a damn bed sheet, and I'm just sitting here, in someone's flat I_ _ **broke into**_ _… if someone found me, I can't admit I ran from my duty and hid. I'd be executed. Why am I_ _ **HERE**_ _? I joined these suicidal crackpots for what reason? What am I gaining from this?_ _ **Nothing**_ _. I'm gaining nothing and losing everything. I only joined the military because I didn't want Hide to feel like I abandoned him._

Kaneki looked over at Hide's body.

 _At least I didn't break that promise._

Kaneki rested his head in his bloody hands. He had a pounding headache and he was shaking with anxiety. What am I supposed to tell his dad? If I live to get out of here, that is…

He remembered when he first met Hideyoshi. They were five, maybe six. Kaneki had gone to his grandparents' house for the summer. He was sitting on the river bank, reading a book. The sun was setting behind the lush green hills, and the breeze was crisp and refreshing. Hide had interrupted his reading. "HEY! Why do I always see you here sitting by yourself?" "Because… I want to be by myself." "Well, don't you want a friend?" "I don't know…" "I don't have any friends, but I'd like a few." Kaneki remembered thinking how weird Hide seemed. He was so antisocial as a kid, he never knew what other kids acted like. "Wanna be my friend? My name's Hideyoshi. But I like Hide better." Hide had such a wide smile as a kid. His smiled could light up a room. "Umm… sure." "What's your name anyways?" "Uh… Kaneki." "That's a cool name! Sounds like something out of a manga!" "What's a… manga?" "Wow, do you live under a rock, Kaneki?"

Kaneki laughed at the memory. _Where would I be today without him? Would I have ever made another friend? Would I have applied for the cadets? Would I have the dream of joining the military police?_

Hide wanted to join the MP's. Not because he just wanted the interior lifestyle. Hide wanted to prove himself useful to the king. Kaneki personally leaned towards the Stationary guard, but aimed for the MPs simply because of Hide. Well… I guess I'll go to the stationary guard now…

At that moment, Kaneki heard that familiar sound. It was like thunder. **The heavy footsteps.**

But there was more than one pair of feet.

Four, no, five pairs of giant feet. Kaneki walked to the window and opened the curtains.

There was the 15 meter class titan, with the disgusting creepy smile. Kaneki couldn't even react before a giant broke through the wall and swept him off his feet.

He didn't have time to even scream before he was greeted by the teeth of a titan.

Everything went black.

-line break-

Kaneki woke up looking at a beautiful fusion of colors. Some purple, some pink, some orange. He sat up.

He was sitting in a field of beautiful flowers that seemed to go on for forever. Flowers he'd never seen inside the walls.

The sun was setting against a body of water. A body of water that stretched beyond infinity. _The river? The river isn't this wide_ … But then Kaneki realized what it was. _Is that… the ocean? That genius blonde kid in our class always spoke of it… he… wasn't making that stuff up… its real?_

He heard the ocean was a body of salty water that covers ¾ of the planet. He thought it was only something nutcase theorists made up. But he was looking at it.

And these flowers weren't the blue ones that grew in the walls. These were red, orange, white, purples, every color of the rainbow. They had different heights. Different petals. Some had more color than one.

The wind wove through Kaneki's hair as he stared in awe of this beautiful sight. He was so stunned by the glory of this picturesque scenery he couldn't speak. _What is this place? How did I get here? Wasn't I just… doing something? What was I doing? I can't remember…_

"Kaneki."

He looked behind him to see Hide standing behind him, smiling. "H-Hide?"

How was this possible? There was Hideyoshi, alive, well, and all four limbs attached.

 _Am I dreaming…?_ Kaneki stood up slowly. _Maybe I'm hallucinating…_ _Maybe the trauma drove me crazy..._ Hide placed his left hand on Kaneki's shoulder.

"Come on, Kaneki," he said sweetly. "Let's go…" _Go? Where? Where are we? How are you here?_

"Let's go home." _Home… yeah… I'd like to go home…_

And with that, they walked toward the sunset, and disappeared with the wind.

The end.


End file.
